Home prices take off in 7 cities

8:45 AM,
Mar. 3, 2013

Workers frame the first home in a new community in Gilbert, Ariz., in the Phoenix metro area.

Written by

Douglas A. McIntyre
24/7 Wall St.

Nearly every important set of government and private-sector figures show a housing market on the rebound. The recovery picked up steam in recent months with home sales jumping in January and December.

One of the most widely followed measures of home price changes is the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. There are several home price indexes that this research group has created, but the one most often cited is the base index. Set at 100 in January 2000, it tracks price changes monthly in 20 major U.S. cities.

In December, the value of homes in the 20 cities Case-Shiller measures rose by 6.8% ...